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The Rise of Resilience in Spatial Planning: A Journey through Disciplinary Boundaries and Contested Practices

Author

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  • Carlo Rega

    (Iteras–Research Centre for Sustainability and Territorial Innovation, 70125 Bari, Italy)

  • Alessandro Bonifazi

    (Iteras–Research Centre for Sustainability and Territorial Innovation, 70125 Bari, Italy
    Department of Civil Engineering Sciences and Architecture, Polytechnic University of Bari, 70126 Bari, Italy)

Abstract

Resilience has become a popular term in spatial planning, often replacing sustainability as a reference frame. However, different concepts and understandings are embedded within it, which calls for keeping a critical stance about its widespread use. In this paper, we engage with the resilience turn in spatial planning and we dwell on the relation between resilience and sustainability from a planning perspective. Building on insights from ecology, complex system theory and epistemology, we question whether resilience can effectively act as a ‘boundary object’, i.e., a concept plastic enough to foster cooperation between different research fields and yet robust enough to maintain a common identity. Whilst we do not predicate a dichotomy between resilience and sustainability, we argue that the shift in the dominant understanding of resilience from a descriptive concept, to a broader conceptual and normative framework, is bound to generate some remarkable tensions. These can be associated with three central aspects in resilience thinking: (i) the unknowability and unpredictability of the future, whence a different focus of sustainability and resilience on outcomes vs. processes, respectively, ensue; (ii) the ontological separation between the internal components of a system and an external shock; (iii) the limited consideration given by resilience to inter- and intra-generational equity. Empirical evidence on actual instances of planning for resilience from different contexts seems to confirm these trends. We advocate that resilience should be used as a descriptive concept in planning within a sustainability framework, which entails a normative and transformative component that resonates with the very raison d’être of planning.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlo Rega & Alessandro Bonifazi, 2020. "The Rise of Resilience in Spatial Planning: A Journey through Disciplinary Boundaries and Contested Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-18, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7277-:d:409050
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Jiao Zhang & Qian Wang & Yiping Xia & Katsunori Furuya, 2022. "Knowledge Map of Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development: A Visual Analysis Using CiteSpace," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-24, February.
    3. Yongming Wang & Umar Iqbal & Yingmei Gong, 2021. "The Performance of Resilient Supply Chain Sustainability in Covid-19 by Sourcing Technological Integration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-17, May.
    4. Jorge Inzulza Contardo & Pablo Moran Figueroa, 2021. "Who Has Benefited? A Socio-Ecological Chronology of Urban Resilience in the Early Reconstruction of Talca after the 27-F Earthquake, Chile 2010–2012," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-17, March.

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